What is a Class Action?
A class action is a lawsuit brought on behalf of many people who have been harmed in a similar manner. Class actions may be especially useful for people with relatively small economic losses that would not justify the hiring of a lawyer to pursue only their own claim. A class action cannot be prosecuted unless at least one person harmed by the conduct decides to act as a class representative.
A class action is a representative action that allows a person or entity to commence a lawsuit on behalf of other persons or entities who are in the same or similar circumstances. A class action is appropriate when many people have been affected by an unlawful course of conduct in a similar fashion. The class action device allows a person or entity with relatively small losses or injuries to seek compensation when individual actions may be too costly or impractical.
A class action is a representative lawsuit which allows an individual or entity to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of other individuals or entities who are in the same or similar circumstances with respect to a given defendant. A class action is appropriate when many people have been affected by a company’s course of conduct in a similar fashion.
A class action is a legal procedure used to prosecute efficiently a lawsuit in which a large number of people have been injured by a common act or set of actions. The class process is used, for example, in cases alleging or concerning price fixing conspiracies (antitrust), fraudulent stock manipulation (securities) and oil spills (mass tort). In a class case, one or two named plaintiffs stand in for the entire group of similarly aggrieved persons during the course of the litigation. When a class action settles, the judge presiding over the case must approve the fairness and propriety of the settlement. Usually, potential class members have the option, after receiving notice, of excluding themselves from a class or class settlement, and pursuing the case on their own. The class procedure allows individuals and small businesses to prosecute meritorious cases that would have been too expensive and insufficient to litigate individually.
Related Questions
- With the GAO report, congressional hearings, the DOL 408 project and class action suits on revenue sharing with mutual funds, what advantage do ETFs have?
- Is formal action of the board of education required for student-funded programs such as yearbooks, class rings and gifts?
- What is a class action settlement?
